The BJP has won the by-elections in Boxanagar and Dhanpur assembly seats under Sepahijala district of Tripura.
According to the Election Commission, BJP’s Tafajjal Hussain won the Boxanagar assembly seat by a margin of 30,237 votes.
About 66 percent of the voters in this assembly seat are minorities. Hussain secured 34 thousand 146 votes while his nearest rival Mizan Hussain of Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM) got 3,909 votes.
On the other hand BJP candidate Bindu Debnath won the Dhanpur assembly seat by 18,871 votes.
A large section of votes in Dhanpur assembly seat belong to the tribal community. In the by-election, Bindu Debnath got 30,017 votes and his nearest rival Kaushik Chanda of Communist Party got 11 thousand 146 votes.
However, during the counting, the CPI(M) boycotted the counting of votes, alleging massive rigging and inaction on this matter by the Election Commission.
In both the seats, the contest was between the ruling BJP and the CPI(M) in Tripura as two other opposition parties, Tipra Motha and the Congress, did not field candidates.
It is noteworthy that voting for the by-election was held on September 5. On an average, 86.50 percent voting took place in both the assembly seats.
Counting of votes took place at Sonamura Girls School amid tight security.
By-election was held in Boxanagar assembly seat due to the death of CPI(M) MLA Samsul Haq. At the same time, after the resignation of Union Minister Pratima Bhowmik from the post of MLA of Dhanpur, this seat became vacant and it became necessary to hold by-election in it.
Let us tell you that even 7 months ago, BJP had won the Dhanpur seat for the first time in the assembly elections and they retained this seat in the by-elections also.
The ruling party registered a big victory in the by-election and snatched the minority-dominated Boxanagar seat from the CPI(M). With this victory, the number of BJP MLAs in the 60-member Tripura Assembly has increased to 33.
Its ally in the assembly, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), has one MLA.
In the Tripura Assembly, opposition Tipra Motha has 13 MLAs, CPI(M) has 10 and Congress has 3 MLAs.
